Overcoming Albinism in Africa – Two Stories

An article earlier this week in the LA Times told the tale of a Tanzanian girl named Bibiana who was attacked because she was albino. Bibiana and Tindi Mashamba (also albino) had already lost their mother to asthma and their father to AIDs. Then somebody broke into their house and amputated Bibiana’s right leg and two of her fingers. A local foundation generously brought Bibiana to Los Angeles and helped her get fitted with a proper prosthetic leg, and both sisters now live here.

The Mashamba sisters are very fortunate. Africans still trade in albino body parts, thinking them to have magical or curative powers. There is also the stigma of being an African with white skin; traditional African beliefs say this is witchcraft, something from the devil. How can you be African and have white skin?

I learned about the fear of albinism in Africa because of SalifKeita, an albino who was ostracized in his youth. I wrote in my world music book RhythmPlanet about how he’d go out singing with the birds in the fields, and when somebody heard his powerful voice they told him to join a band. He joined Les Ambassadeurs du Motel de Bamako, Mali, named after a small hotel at the capital’s train station. The rest is history, as he is now one of Mali’s most famous singers.